


Halfway Home

by NotGarfield



Series: Halfway Gone [2]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Bittersweet Ending, F/M, Family Issues, Feelings Realization, Fluff and Angst, let Nathalie admit she's not ok, proably a whole bunch of made up lore, she doesn't die i promise
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-20
Updated: 2020-10-04
Packaged: 2021-03-07 21:28:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,033
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26554372
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NotGarfield/pseuds/NotGarfield
Summary: In the aftermath of Nathalie's magical accident and Adrien's discovery of his father's double life, heroes and (former) villains must navigate an uneasy truce in an effort to help Nathalie. Meanwhile, Gabriel struggles to come to terms with his newly realized feelings for his partner in crime, and he and Adrien try to figure out how much of their relationship can be salvaged.Sequel to "Halfway Gone."
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Gabriel Agreste | Papillon | Hawk Moth/Nathalie Sancoeur
Series: Halfway Gone [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1778356
Comments: 27
Kudos: 58
Collections: GabeNath Book Club and Art Club Server





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Here it is, the moment you've all been waiting for! It took a little longer than I expected, but I'm super excited to share the second half of this story with you. Also, go show some love to hopesartcastle, who did AMAZING art of Madame Malheur here: https://www.instagram.com/p/CFF46BRlPXA/?igshid=12nkgedjkdkid

Gabriel Agreste sometimes wondered if he was destined to make everyone he loved suffer by the consequences of his actions.

Nathalie stood by the window, silhouetted in morning light, and staring fixedly out at the rooftops - searching, he knew, for any sign of the heroes approaching the mansion. Her unbound hair fell to the middle of her back, frizzy and tangled from sleep. The rigid lines of her shoulders spoke of her worry. He knew that if she turned, he would see dark veins around her eyes, and a shattered look in them. He had no idea how to help her.

It didn’t take a miraculous to sense her surprise when he stepped up behind her and wrapped his arms around her, pressing himself against her back. She stiffened, then said: “They haven’t come yet.”

“It’s possible Adrien hasn’t been able to contact them,” Gabriel said, and then added weakly: “Or that he doesn’t intend to.” It was a fool’s hope; he didn’t know why he bothered to voice it. Adrien’s sense of justice was too strong for that. Maybe he loved them, but Gabriel didn’t believe he would protect them in this, not when they had had no chance to explain themselves. From the doubtful hum that was Nathalie’s only response, he suspected that she was thinking the same.

“Nathalie,” he said, and buried his nose in her hair. His promise last night, that he would fix her situation whatever it took, seemed much too rash - too unreachable - in the crisp morning. But damn if he didn’t want to. He settled for a more moderate statement. “I’m going to do whatever I can.”

She twisted around and looked back at him over her shoulder. “I appreciate it, but I don’t know that you can do anything about this.”

There was no judgement or resentment in her tone, only a bitter, almost wry acceptance of the impossible situation they were in. If anything, though, it was the absence of judgement that stung the most. Nathalie was right. He couldn’t bend the universe to his will in this, any more than he had been able to do it for the last two years. He was responsible for her pain, but all he could do to ease it was wait for two people who had no reason to show him any mercy at all, and beg them not only for mercy but for help.

So he held Nathalie a little tighter, and looked over her head and out the window at the pale sky, and waited.

*****

Across the city, Adrien and Marinette sat on a bench beside the Seine, looking down into the water. Adrien had barely slept the previous night. He guessed Marinette hadn’t either, because when he dressed and wandered out to the living room before dawn, he had found her already there, also dressed, sitting on the sofa in the dark with her knees drawn up to her chest. She had suggested they take an early breakfast with them and go out for a walk, and Adrien - already feeling restless from staying in the same place waiting for something to happen - agreed.

They both also knew - but didn’t say - that getting out of the house would give them the chance to make a plan without risking Marinette’s parents overhearing, but that was an hour ago, and neither of them had yet brought it up.

Adrien crumpled the napkin that his pastry had been wrapped in. “So,” he said.

“So,” Marinette echoed. She pulled her coat tighter around her and leaned against Adrien. The morning was sunny, but chilly, and every surface was glossy with dew.

There was a pause, and then Marinette went on: “How are you?”

Adrien weighed the question. The overwhelming emotion of the previous afternoon had faded away some time in the night. There was a dull, aching knot deep in his chest, but when he went to inspect it more closely, it seemed to pull itself tighter, resisting being untangled. A Pandora’s Box of unpleasantness that he, for some reason, couldn’t open. It seemed that he wasn’t feeling much of anything, at least nothing acute.

“I don’t know,” he answered honestly.

Marinette, who had been watching a pair of ducks on the river, turned her head and looked up at him. “What do you want to do?”

This question was much simpler. “We need to go to them,” he said. “Get the miraculous back - all of them - and find out what’s going on with Nathalie.”

Marinette’s brow furrowed. “Won’t they be ready for a confrontation? If they know their identities aren’t safe, they’ll be expecting us to find out and come for them.”

“They won’t fight us,” Adrien said firmly.

“Are you sure?” Marinette asked. Adrien heard the unspoken question underneath:  _ are you trying to believe the best of him because he’s your father? _ But she hadn’t been there yesterday.  _ I am… that is, I was _ , his father had started to say. And he looked so panicked and helpless in the face of whatever was going on with Nathalie - not to mention his concern for her on the battlefield. Whatever was happening to her was making him reevaluate, Adrien was sure of it.

“Yes,” he said. “I am.”

“Okay.” Marinette took a deep breath, and then gave him an encouraging smile. “Okay. I trust you, kitty.”

She hadn’t called him that since he lost the ring, and in spite of everything, he couldn’t help but smile at the idea of being reunited with Plagg soon. 

“When do you want to do it?” she asked.

“Now.”

“Now?”

“Now,” he confirmed. “We need to do it sooner or later. There’s no reason to wait. And” - he swallowed - “the sooner we do, the sooner we can try to help Nathalie.”

Marinette nodded, sympathy in her expression, and he silently thanked her for understanding. “All right,” she said. “Just let me call my parents, and we can go.”

***** 

One phone call later, with the excuse that the two of them were going to go see a movie and then get lunch out, the two teenagers took off across the rooftops in the direction of the Agreste mansion. Yellowjacket was thankful for the chance to burn off his nervous energy by running and jumping, because he knew if he stopped moving the butterflies in his stomach would probably swell up into his throat and choke him. When they reached the mansion, he beckoned for Ladybug to follow, and made his way to the window of his bedroom.

Thankfully, the one pane he always used for his escapes remained unlocked. His hands shook as he opened it. Ladybug followed him into the room and across to the door. “Where do you think they’ll be?” she whispered as they stepped out into the hall. 

“Let’s check the atelier first,” he whispered back, mouth dry.

But when they made it down to the first level, they found the door still ajar, exactly as Adrien had left it during his hurried exit the day before, and a quick glance through the gap told them that it was empty. 

“Upstairs,” he said to Ladybug, and headed back the way they had come. 

Nathalie’s guest room was likewise empty, which, given its condition, wasn’t surprising. Ladybug gasped softly when she looked over his shoulder at the blackened, crumbling furniture. “She wasn’t even transformed when this happened?” she asked, in a tone of mixed awe and alarm.

“I don’t think so. She wasn’t when we found her.”   
  


There was only one other place Yellowjacket could think they would be - assuming they were here at all. What if he had been wrong? What if they had decided to make a run for it after all? With his heartbeat thudding in his ears, he made his way down the corridor toward the closed door of the master bedroom. As they got closer, they heard voices coming from inside.

He looked over his shoulder at Ladybug, who nodded back. “I’m right here with you,” she said, and stepped up beside him, grabbing his hand. He squeezed it tightly and took two deep breaths, then reached for the doorknob.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hopesartcastle did some more STUNNING art!   
> The kiss from Halfway Gone here: https://www.instagram.com/p/CFYCzfaFWJO/?igshid=t283rxlutsrk   
> And the opening scene of the previous chapter here: https://www.instagram.com/p/CFnZRIiFxn4/?igshid=1vg16pivmh75s

The door opened to reveal Gabriel and Nathalie sitting together on the edge of the former’s bed, knees almost touching, both rumpled and haggard. Whatever conversation they had been having, it stopped as soon as they heard the creak of the hinges, but they didn’t seem surprised at the appearance of the two heroes.

“Ladybug. Yellowjacket,” said Gabriel seriously, inclining his head in acknowledgement.

For a long moment, no one spoke. To Yellowjacket, the elephant in the room seemed simply too big to be worth trying to say anything about. It wasn’t like any of them were in any doubt why he and Ladybug were there.

Gabriel moved, and Yellowjacket instinctively reached for his top, falling into a ready stance; out of the corner of his eye, he glimpsed Ladybug, still beside and slightly behind him, doing the same. Gabriel raised his hands in a gesture of surrender. “Calm down,” he said, frowning. “I’m not interested in fighting.” Keeping one hand raised, he slowly reached for the nightstand, opened the top drawer, and reached into it. When he withdrew his hand and opened it to show the contents, Yellowjacket saw Mayura’s fan-shaped brooch, a purple pin that he guessed must be the inactive form of Hawkmoth’s miraculous, and his own ring.

He and Ladybug reached for them at the same moment, but his father closed his hand. At that, Ladybug stepped forward, a hand on her yo-yo. “Hawkmoth,” she said warningly.

“You’ll have them,” Gabriel snapped. “But I need you not to run off just yet.” There was something sharp in his look that Yellowjacket associated, not with his father’s well-meaning sternness, but with his enemy’s cunning, and for the first time, all in a rush, he saw one in the other. He gulped, but stood his ground.

“We aren’t going anywhere,” Ladybug said, not relaxing her posture. “We need some answers from both of you. If you hand over those miraculous now, and answer us truthfully, I promise we’ll hear you out.”

Gabriel’s brow furrowed. “Fine,” he said, and uncurled his fingers again, offering his open hand to Ladybug. She seized the three jewels.

Yellowjacket stepped up beside her, eyes fixed on the ring. “Can I…?”

She turned to him and smiled, holding it out. He took it and slipped it onto his finger, and immediately Plagg materialized out of a familiar green glow. 

“Hey, kid,” the kwaami said in an uncharacteristically affectionate tone, and flew forward to bump his head against Yellowjacket’s cheek. While there, he took the opportunity to whisper, so that the two adults couldn’t hear: “I’m so sorry.”

Meanwhile, Ladybug had apparently satisfied herself as to the authenticity of the other two miraculous, because she put them away and turned her attention back to Gabriel and Nathalie, standing over them with arms folded. “Now, she said, “tell us everything.”

Gabriel took a deep breath. “It started many years ago, before I met my - my late wife, Emilie. She had always taken an interest in magic, and the legends and lore of artifacts with strange powers. Some time into our marriage, she caught wind of a ruined temple in Tibet, and some items of significance that might be found there.”

Yellowjacket frowned. He had never heard of any of this - although come to think of it, he did remember, when he was much younger, his parents going out of the country for a couple of weeks and leaving him with Chloe and her father instead of bringing him along.

“That was where we found the peacock and butterfly miraculous, and the grimoire,” Gabriel went on. “I didn’t want much to do with them. Emilie used the peacock despite its being damaged when we found it. When the effects started to appear, we believe she tried to repair the miraculous using a spell from the grimoire, and failed - although I didn’t know that at the time. All I knew was that her condition worsened suddenly, and” - he swallowed and lowered his head. “She passed away.”

Nathalie turned toward him and lifted one hand as if she was about to place it on his shoulder, but paused and lowered it back to her lap. While they were distracted, Ladybug reached back and just brushed Yellowjacket’s hand, hooking their pinky fingers together for an instant, then letting go before Gabriel and Nathalie noticed. Yellowjacket tried his hardest to keep his expression steady, grateful that he wasn’t hearing the news for the first time.

Gabriel, after taking a moment to compose himself, looked up. “Before she died,” he said, in a rougher voice than before, “she told me about the ladybug and black cat miraculous, and the power they possessed when combined. She made me promise that I would find a way to get them and bring her back.”

“She  _ what? _ ”

Three pairs of eyes turned to Yellowjacket, but he barely noticed two of them; all his attention was on his father. “She…” he barely swallowed back the words  _ she wouldn’t _ , remembering in the nick of time that as far as either his father or Nathalie knew, Yellowjacket had never met Emilie Agreste. “She asked you to do this?” he asked, changing course. “She wanted you to become a villain?”

“Not exactly,” Gabriel said stiffly. “There were no leads on your miraculous. I couldn’t imagine how else to find them other than to draw them out into the open by creating a threat.”

Somehow, that was worse. How could he be so matter-of-fact about it? Yellowjacket clasped his hands behind his back to stop them shaking. “And you thought this was… okay? Justified? Threatening a whole city instead of moving on from M - your wife like a normal person?”

“Kitty,” Ladybug warned in an undertone, but Yellowjacket barely heard her. The knot of emotion inside him was coming unravelled all at once, and it turned out it was all anger, spilling out and flowing through him like the contents of a ruptured abscess. 

“It was for Adrien, too,” Gabriel protested. “He needs his mother.”

“You don’t think he needs a father who’s actually there?”

Gabriel’s voice was rising along with Yellowjacket’s. “This was supposed to be straightforward. I never meant it to go so far. Now that Nathalie” -

“What about her?” Yellowjacket interrupted. “Apparently you had her out fighting even though you knew her miraculous was broken. But now that what’s happening to her is putting  _ you _ in danger, too, that’s the line?”

At that, Nathalie sat forward. “It was my choice,” she said, in a level but commanding tone that cut through the simmering fury between father and son. “I accepted the risks.”

“But he let you.” Yellowjacket stepped forward, staring down his father. “You’re not sorry about what you’ve been doing. You’re just sorry that there are consequences.”

Gabriel sprang up from the bed, towering over Yellowjacket. “How dare you?” he roared. “You don’t understand any of this!”

Yellowjacket saw red. “I don’t understand?” he shouted. “Pollen” -

“No, wait!” Ladybug exclaimed, reaching for him.

“Buzz off.”

As the light faded around him, everything in the room stood still for a moment.

Gabriel’s expression morphed slowly from anger into shock. On the bed behind him, Nathalie raised a hand to her mouth. “Oh, God,” she murmured.

“Adrien,” Gabriel said slowly. “If I had known…” 

Adrien was in no humor to listen. “Would anything have changed? Really? You let your akumas turn me into statues and - and drop me off buildings! As Adrien! Clearly you don’t have a problem with roughing me up as long as it gets you closer to what  _ you _ want. It didn’t bother you until you got found out.”

His father winced, but said nothing.

“You know, I’ve been cutting you slack this whole time,” Adrien went on, taking a step closer. “I thought you were just being distant because you needed more time to grieve. But - all along, you were hiding away and terrorizing the whole city because you wouldn’t accept that she was gone?” For the first time in the argument, his voice cracked. “I needed you after we lost Mom, but you only cared about yourself. And you still only care about yourself. If you really cared about me or Nathalie, you wouldn’t have let this happen in the first place.”

Gabriel’s face twisted, like he was about to shout back, but he didn’t seem to have a retort, and his mouth opened and shut again. Good, Adrien thought. It was his turn to listen. “You should have known that this was messed up before you started,” he went on. “You’re only giving up now because you might lose something.”

He stood, breathing heavily, his supply of words and anger temporarily run dry, and for a few seconds he and his father simply stared at each other. 

“Now that you have that off your chest,” Gabriel said coldly, “can you help Nathalie or not?”

Tears - of what emotion, Adrien didn’t know - started to gather and ache behind his eyes. “I don’t know why I expected anything better than that.”

Ladybug grabbed his elbow, giving him a sympathetic look. “Come on, Adrien, let’s talk outside for a minute.” She glared over her shoulder at the two adults as she pulled Adrien toward the bedroom door. He followed in a daze. 

As soon as the door shut behind them, Ladybug pulled him into a hug. “I’m sorry,” she said quietly. “That was…”

“Yeah,” he said, burying his face in her shoulder. “It was.”

*****

Gabriel sat down heavily on the edge of the bed and put his face in his hands. The mattress squeaked as Nathalie shifted position; she kept her hands in her lap, but he felt her scoot in until they were sitting like they had been before, knees and shoulders brushing. “Sir - I mean, Gabriel?”

“He’s right, isn’t he?” Gabriel muttered, looking over at her.

She let out a breath, meeting his gaze evenly. “Only you can answer that for certain.”

“Do you think he’ll ever forgive us?”

She paused, lips pursing thoughtfully, before answering. “I hope so.”


End file.
